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Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
February 18, 1999     Shelton Mason County Journal
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February 18, 1999
 
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PIONEER MIDDLE SCHOOL students Mike Beltz, left, Jonathan Huber and Dane Simpson interview World War II veteran Wally Hoffman while teacher Tom Harron, right, looks on. The students have in- terviewed a number of vets, including Sheltonian Ken Fredson, as part of a World War II project. Video project teaches Pioneer students about World War II By JEFF GREEN History is coming alive in a most literal way at Pioneer Middle School, where stu- dents are busy interviewing veterans of World War II. That distant war is being revived for the students and veterans alike. "l think you need to know the cause and effect," one vet- eran told the students. "(War) isn't all Hol- lywood and heroes. It's a dirty job." The World War II oral history project at Pioneer Middle School involves formal in- terviews by students of nearly 30 veterans. It's part of a larger project involving several other schools in Western Washington. Students in Tom Harron's class at Pioneer get ready for the interviews by con- ducting research about the war, then devel- op a series of questions for the veterans. The interviews are videotaped and those tapes will be available this spring to stu- dents working on World War II-related projects. "THE WORLD WAS totally involved in World War II. There was no place to hide," said Wally Hoffman, an Olympia resident who flew 35 missions over Germany at the controls of a B-17 bomber. Hoffman was a 21-year-old student at what is now Washington State University when he entered the service. "All of us felt we were going to have to take some overt action to preserve our way of life," he said. "It wasn't necessarily wav- ing the flag. It was a job that had to be done " Hoffman had his private pilot's license when he left college to become an aviation cadet. That trip took him from Washington to towns called Sweetwater and Victoria in Texas; to Enid, Oklahoma; and, finally, to Tampa, Florida, before he flew to England. One week, classes started at 7 a.m. and ,the trainees flew in the afternoon. The next week, that schedule was reversed, Hoffman remembered. From 8 to 11 a.m., there was continuous physical training and the men were granted a 10-minute break every hour. "At that time, the B-17 was one of the largest airplanes in the world,  he told the students. "It looked immense. You won- dered how on earth you were going to get it off the ground." HOFFMAN AND HIS crew flew their bomber to Scotland, landing near Glasgow. He recalled the pubs were very friendly places. The friendly atmosphere quickly faded once the men began flying missions over all-too-hostile Germany. Flashlights shin- ing in their eyes woke them at 2 a.m. '`you were always short of sleep," he said. "Our primary objective was to sleep." By 3:30 or 4 a.m., the weary flyers sat down for a breakfast that was hard to swal- low. Two fried eggs staring you in the face at that time of morning was not a welcome sight, he told his listeners. "Fear was the basic thing," he said. The life expectancy of the bomber crews was just three and a half missions. "We lost more men in the Eighth Air Force than they did in the Vietnam War," Hoffman explained. "You reach a point where either your fear conquers you or you conquer it." THE LONGEST time in the world for the crews was called the initial point-to-tar- get when they lined up for their bombing runs. Flak came at them from German anti- aircraft batteries below. German fighter planes attacked the bombers from all an- gles. "A fighter firing at you looks like it's winking at you," Hoffman said. The losses were staggering, tIoffman re- members looking at the empty beds of crew- men who didn't return from their missions. He thought: Those guys were here yesterday doing the same things I am doing today. "There was a real close relationship be- tween crews," he said. "You ate together and did everything together. There was no rank in the air." The experience of seeing so many flam- ing planes, parachutes, contrails, explo- sions, smoke and charred bodies left him numb and fatalistic. "You reach the point, psychologically, of either dropping off the deep end or you keep going," he said. THE IDEA OF DYING doesn't bother him, he said, adding that even today, Air Force veterans have no fear of death. "I think my attitude is no different from those people that were in combat," Hoffman said, speaking of those involved in the ground battles. Staring death in the face has paid some dividends for him. Diagnosed with cancer in (Please turn to page 2.) Group pursuing home rule charter system for county A group of Mason County resi- dents has formed a steering committee to pursue the home rule charter system of govern- ment for the county. The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 25, at the Mary Theler Community Center on Highway 3 in Belfair. Many counties in the state and across the nation have changed from the three-commissioner system to the home rule charter form, according to Bill Quigley, a Belfair resident who ran for county commissioner. "Home rule charter is a county charter, drafted by citizens of the county called 'freeholders' who are elected by the citizens of the county,", Quigley explained. "The only function of the elected freeholders is to draft the charter and present it to the county com- missioners. The commissioners submit the charter for approval by vote." Quigley maintains the home rule charter system provides for greater citizen input. The county commission would be composed of five to seven citizens, "not ca- reer politicians," he adds. "Home rule is not about you or I - whether we agree or disagree on a specific issue. It is about re- turning the power of government back to the citizens it was intend- ed to serve." The commissioners would handle only legislative func- tions of the government, he notes, and administrative functions could be handled day-by-day by a professional manager. The first step in the process is to acquire the signatures of at least 10 percent of the voters reg- istered in the last general elec- tion, Quigley says. More infor- mation about the charter system will be available at next Thurs- day's meeting in Belfair. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllllll On the inside Births .................................... 12 Classifieds ........................... 24 Community Calendar ......... 7 Crossword ........................... 27 Entertainment, Dining ..... 18 Health Journal .................. 15 Journal of Record .............. 11 Obituaries ............................ 12 Opinions, Letters .................. 4 Sports ................................... 20 Tides ..................................... 28 Weather ................................ 28 IIIIIIIIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUUlIIIIIIIlUlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUlIIIIIII College's Alderbrook funding has been somewhat depleted Friends of Olympic College Shelton heard some good news and some not-so-great news when Michael Connolly, dean of the Olympic College Business Office, met with the group last Thursday on the Shelton campus. Yes, Connolly told the group, money for building a library on the Shelton campus from the es- tate of the late Alderbrook devel- oper Wesley Johnson is forthcom- ing, possibly as soon as six months from now. But no, it won't be anything like the multi-million-dollar fig. ure initially discussed. The popu- lar Hood Canal resort languished on the market and eventually sold for about half what onlookers had anticipated, Connolly said. He estimated that the college will realize somewhere between $1.3 and $1.7 million after expenses. THE COLLEGE'S share of the proceeds of the sale of John- son's property in a disputed lega- cy has been reduced by over a qarter of a million dollars in at- torney fees, Connolly said. The figure available for new construc- t (Please turn to page 9.) Slide menacing Lilliwaup homes A mud slide that hit last Thursday one mile north of Lilli- waup along Highway 101 threat- ens to undermine three houses and two trailers, according to a Mason County Building Depart- ment official. Residents of two of the houses have been notified not to occupy them, said Dana Herren of the building department. He said the department is concerned for their safety and for the safety of the buildings. The third house and trailers are summer residences and were unoccupied. "It's really a wait-and-see game to see what happens next," Her- ren told The Journal. The topsoil on a layer of clay was saturated by heavy rains and began moving along a 500-foot swath and is still moving, he said. There's a series of fractures in the ground in that: area that measure up to eiIhl inches deep "No one is really sure what's underneath," ad(te¢l Herren. Paula Pope is one of the rein dents forced out by tile slide. She and her husband, currently w()rk- ing in Saudi Arabia, have lived cm the hillside for nearly a year. She said the slide took out her power and phone lines and dropped part of the driveway to her house some six feet. "IT LOOKS I,IKE everythinr. around it (the house) is just slid- ing down the hill," Pope said, add. ing that the house so far remains undamaged, Her landlady, Gloria Swanson, also was fiJrced out of her house, h)cated down the hill from Pope's residence. Pope said Mrs Swan- son wa stayig with her daugh- t,r i 1,%rks f,)r the time being. I'¢W' " tayiq, with a friend in ] ;11"1" 5' N'ither of them wanted to l(,',ve, Pop(! added. "They were l.llin}t us, 'Get out,' " she said, re- [',,rrin; to county officials. Last weekend Lilliwaup residents came t( l'ope's tmme, packed up ,v(:>rytl,ing in the house and put the behmgings in storage tbr her. She i on crutches from a recent surgor' ()I1 ol/e of her legs and said she h',d been home from the hospit:d only five days when the s} ide occurred. Pope said she doesn't know what sh,'s going to do about hnising but will stay with her fri(md until her husband returns. ()no lhinv seems certain: The (Please turn to page 3.) /,/ i:il Thursday, February 18, 1999 113th Year - Number 7 3 Sections - 32 Pages 50 Cents Fired police officer to face gun charge A former Shelton Police De- partment officer was in Mason County Superior Court last week facing a charge of his own. Humberto DelaCruz, 31, of 320 21st Avenue SW, Olympia, was identified before Judge James Sawyer with being an alien in possession of a firearm. The guns in question were carried in the line of duty during his tenure as a police officer. Deputy Prosecutor Reinhold Schuetz filed the charge after the Shelton Police Department noti- fied the prosecutor's office that DelaCruz allegedly failed to let the department know he wasn't a U.S. citizen when he was hired as a reserve officer. THE POLICE department later hired DelaCruz as a regular officer. He is appealing his dis- missal last December to the city civil service commission Shelton Police Lieutenant Ken Dobie de- clined comment on the matter. In court last Friday with the defendant, retained attorney John Sinclair entered a motion to dismiss the case based on the sta- tute of limitations and waived his client's arraignment until the res- olution of his motion. He contend- ed that the time for filing on the charge had expired. Deputy Prosecutor Schuetz cit- ed a tenure statute, maintaining that the offense was ongoing for the duration of the time that DelaCruz served as an officer and carried a firearm. Information in the file was pro- vided by agent Adam Levine of the Immigration and Naturaliza- tion division of the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice. That information alleges that DelaCruz was born in Mexico and was granted tempo- rary residence in the U.S. on 1)e- cember 4, 1989. He became a law- ful resident, but not a citizen, on March 29, 1991, according to documents in the case. HE GO'][' A job as a reserve of- ricer with the Shelton Police I)e- partment on May 2, 1992 after tip ing an application that falsely claimed U.S. citizenship, accord- ing to court papers. In September of 1994 the Shelton Police l)e- partment gave him a Glock handgun to be carried on duty, according to court papers. Two months later he applied for U.S. citizenship and stated in official papers that he was a Mexican cit- izen. He was hired as a police officer in 1995. Soon after being sworn in he wrote a memorandum to Dobie indicating that his off-duty fire- arm would be a .45 caliber Springfield handgun, according to court papers. He was naturalized and admitted to the U.S. as a citi- zen on January 31, 1996. A check of records determined that he never applied for an alien firearms license for either the Glock or the Springfield, accord- ing to court papers. Sinclair claims in a motion tbr dismissal that the clock started running on the three-year statute of limitations the day after Dela• Cruz was made a U.S. citizen. By Sinclair's logic, January 31 of this year was the last date to t'ile charges in this case. Charges were filed on February 9 of this year, SINCLAIR SAID that he would also move for a change of venue, indicating that in the course of his client:'s employment with the police department Dela- Cruz had worked witt the prose- cutor's oMce and testified before both Mason County Superior "I believe that establishesa 'f mmtlict of interest," he explained. The motions are scheduled for arglimelt; before the court on March 25• I)ela(;ruz is claiming he is a victim ot' discrimination, Sinclair said. In addition, Sinclair said the City of Shelten is an accomplice to the we'q)ons charge filed against his client. "Technically that's true," Sin- clair said. "They handed him a gull." 1)elaCruz currently works as a stor, security officer, Sinclair said. DON DANIEl,, an Olympia attorney representing the Shelt0n Police Department, said DelaCru was t'ired after failing to respond to cotrtJssued subpoenas and for failing to return to court for a sec- ond day of testimony aler he was ordered to do so by a judge. Dela- Cruz misrepresented the reasons why he didn't return to court, l)aniel said. As tbr DelaCruz's claim he was discriminated against, Daniel c(mlmented, "Our investigation of that matter has turned up no evi- dence to support those allega- tions. I can assure you there has been no discri ruination or any dis- criminatory conduct toward him as he alleges." The' civil service commission hearing on l)eJaCruz's appeal of his termination is sch(:'duled for March 2 and 3, Daniel said. Woman admits giving man fatal heroin shot With a pool of potential jurors waiting in the hall, Mason Coun- ty's first case of homicide by con- trolled substance was resolved with a change of plea in superior court last Thursday. Vivianne Sue Briley, 46, of 120 West Birch Street, Shelton, en- tered the change of plea with the aid of attorney Ron Sergi in a plea-bargain agreement with the state. Deputy Prosecutor Rein- hold Schuetz orally amended the charges against her to conspiracy to commit controlled-substance homicide. Schuetz said the amended charge, an unranked offense in terms of the state's standard sen- tencing guidelines, was justit'ied in that an individual who deliv ered the drug that Briley injected for the victim was also a particip- ant in the death of Mark Ewing. Ewing died of a heroin overdose in early November of' 1998 at Bri- ley's residence Briley told Mason County Su- perior Court Judge James Sawyer in her plea that she injected Ew- ing, at his direction, with the drug late on November 1 and that he was found dead the next morn- ing. Schuetz told the court that Bri- Icy, who said at Thursday's pro- ceedings that she has a bachelor's degree in business administra- tion, was also using drugs at the tram She has provided clean uri- nalysis-test results to the court sin(: bd'ore Christmas, and Ju(l,., Sawyer commended the (:hanq.{e. lie also acknowledged the validity of Schuetz's request that Brih,y be warned that she faces stone tough times staying drug- free in the days to come. She faces prison, having bargained tbr a stipulated 20-1nonth sentence, and she's due for sentencing three (lays after her 47th birthday. Judge Sawyer ordered the preparation of a presentence in, vestigation when he set Brilefa sentencing tbr March 25, PIONEER MIDDLE SCHOOL students Mike Beltz, left, Jonathan Huber and Dane Simpson interview World War II veteran Wally Hoffman while teacher Tom Harron, right, looks on. The students have in- terviewed a number of vets, including Sheltonian Ken Fredson, as part of a World War II project. Video project teaches Pioneer students about World War II By JEFF GREEN History is coming alive in a most literal way at Pioneer Middle School, where stu- dents are busy interviewing veterans of World War II. That distant war is being revived for the students and veterans alike. "l think you need to know the cause and effect," one vet- eran told the students. "(War) isn't all Hol- lywood and heroes. It's a dirty job." The World War II oral history project at Pioneer Middle School involves formal in- terviews by students of nearly 30 veterans. It's part of a larger project involving several other schools in Western Washington. Students in Tom Harron's class at Pioneer get ready for the interviews by con- ducting research about the war, then devel- op a series of questions for the veterans. The interviews are videotaped and those tapes will be available this spring to stu- dents working on World War II-related projects. "THE WORLD WAS totally involved in World War II. There was no place to hide," said Wally Hoffman, an Olympia resident who flew 35 missions over Germany at the controls of a B-17 bomber. Hoffman was a 21-year-old student at what is now Washington State University when he entered the service. "All of us felt we were going to have to take some overt action to preserve our way of life," he said. "It wasn't necessarily wav- ing the flag. It was a job that had to be done " Hoffman had his private pilot's license when he left college to become an aviation cadet. That trip took him from Washington to towns called Sweetwater and Victoria in Texas; to Enid, Oklahoma; and, finally, to Tampa, Florida, before he flew to England. One week, classes started at 7 a.m. and ,the trainees flew in the afternoon. The next week, that schedule was reversed, Hoffman remembered. From 8 to 11 a.m., there was continuous physical training and the men were granted a 10-minute break every hour. "At that time, the B-17 was one of the largest airplanes in the world,  he told the students. "It looked immense. You won- dered how on earth you were going to get it off the ground." HOFFMAN AND HIS crew flew their bomber to Scotland, landing near Glasgow. He recalled the pubs were very friendly places. The friendly atmosphere quickly faded once the men began flying missions over all-too-hostile Germany. Flashlights shin- ing in their eyes woke them at 2 a.m. '`you were always short of sleep," he said. "Our primary objective was to sleep." By 3:30 or 4 a.m., the weary flyers sat down for a breakfast that was hard to swal- low. Two fried eggs staring you in the face at that time of morning was not a welcome sight, he told his listeners. "Fear was the basic thing," he said. The life expectancy of the bomber crews was just three and a half missions. "We lost more men in the Eighth Air Force than they did in the Vietnam War," Hoffman explained. "You reach a point where either your fear conquers you or you conquer it." THE LONGEST time in the world for the crews was called the initial point-to-tar- get when they lined up for their bombing runs. Flak came at them from German anti- aircraft batteries below. German fighter planes attacked the bombers from all an- gles. "A fighter firing at you looks like it's winking at you," Hoffman said. The losses were staggering, tIoffman re- members looking at the empty beds of crew- men who didn't return from their missions. He thought: Those guys were here yesterday doing the same things I am doing today. "There was a real close relationship be- tween crews," he said. "You ate together and did everything together. There was no rank in the air." The experience of seeing so many flam- ing planes, parachutes, contrails, explo- sions, smoke and charred bodies left him numb and fatalistic. "You reach the point, psychologically, of either dropping off the deep end or you keep going," he said. THE IDEA OF DYING doesn't bother him, he said, adding that even today, Air Force veterans have no fear of death. "I think my attitude is no different from those people that were in combat," Hoffman said, speaking of those involved in the ground battles. Staring death in the face has paid some dividends for him. Diagnosed with cancer in (Please turn to page 2.) Group pursuing home rule charter system for county A group of Mason County resi- dents has formed a steering committee to pursue the home rule charter system of govern- ment for the county. The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 25, at the Mary Theler Community Center on Highway 3 in Belfair. Many counties in the state and across the nation have changed from the three-commissioner system to the home rule charter form, according to Bill Quigley, a Belfair resident who ran for county commissioner. "Home rule charter is a county charter, drafted by citizens of the county called 'freeholders' who are elected by the citizens of the county,", Quigley explained. "The only function of the elected freeholders is to draft the charter and present it to the county com- missioners. The commissioners submit the charter for approval by vote." Quigley maintains the home rule charter system provides for greater citizen input. The county commission would be composed of five to seven citizens, "not ca- reer politicians," he adds. "Home rule is not about you or I - whether we agree or disagree on a specific issue. It is about re- turning the power of government back to the citizens it was intend- ed to serve." The commissioners would handle only legislative func- tions of the government, he notes, and administrative functions could be handled day-by-day by a professional manager. The first step in the process is to acquire the signatures of at least 10 percent of the voters reg- istered in the last general elec- tion, Quigley says. More infor- mation about the charter system will be available at next Thurs- day's meeting in Belfair. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllllll On the inside Births .................................... 12 Classifieds ........................... 24 Community Calendar ......... 7 Crossword ........................... 27 Entertainment, Dining ..... 18 Health Journal .................. 15 Journal of Record .............. 11 Obituaries ............................ 12 Opinions, Letters .................. 4 Sports ................................... 20 Tides ..................................... 28 Weather ................................ 28 IIIIIIIIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUUlIIIIIIIlUlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUlIIIIIII College's Alderbrook funding has been somewhat depleted Friends of Olympic College Shelton heard some good news and some not-so-great news when Michael Connolly, dean of the Olympic College Business Office, met with the group last Thursday on the Shelton campus. Yes, Connolly told the group, money for building a library on the Shelton campus from the es- tate of the late Alderbrook devel- oper Wesley Johnson is forthcom- ing, possibly as soon as six months from now. But no, it won't be anything like the multi-million-dollar fig. ure initially discussed. The popu- lar Hood Canal resort languished on the market and eventually sold for about half what onlookers had anticipated, Connolly said. He estimated that the college will realize somewhere between $1.3 and $1.7 million after expenses. THE COLLEGE'S share of the proceeds of the sale of John- son's property in a disputed lega- cy has been reduced by over a qarter of a million dollars in at- torney fees, Connolly said. The figure available for new construc- t (Please turn to page 9.) Slide menacing Lilliwaup homes A mud slide that hit last Thursday one mile north of Lilli- waup along Highway 101 threat- ens to undermine three houses and two trailers, according to a Mason County Building Depart- ment official. Residents of two of the houses have been notified not to occupy them, said Dana Herren of the building department. He said the department is concerned for their safety and for the safety of the buildings. The third house and trailers are summer residences and were unoccupied. "It's really a wait-and-see game to see what happens next," Her- ren told The Journal. The topsoil on a layer of clay was saturated by heavy rains and began moving along a 500-foot swath and is still moving, he said. There's a series of fractures in the ground in that: area that measure up to eiIhl inches deep "No one is really sure what's underneath," ad(te¢l Herren. Paula Pope is one of the rein dents forced out by tile slide. She and her husband, currently w()rk- ing in Saudi Arabia, have lived cm the hillside for nearly a year. She said the slide took out her power and phone lines and dropped part of the driveway to her house some six feet. "IT LOOKS I,IKE everythinr. around it (the house) is just slid- ing down the hill," Pope said, add. ing that the house so far remains undamaged, Her landlady, Gloria Swanson, also was fiJrced out of her house, h)cated down the hill from Pope's residence. Pope said Mrs Swan- son wa stayig with her daugh- t,r i 1,%rks f,)r the time being. I'¢W' " tayiq, with a friend in ] ;11"1" 5' N'ither of them wanted to l(,',ve, Pop(! added. "They were l.llin}t us, 'Get out,' " she said, re- [',,rrin; to county officials. Last weekend Lilliwaup residents came t( l'ope's tmme, packed up ,v(:>rytl,ing in the house and put the behmgings in storage tbr her. She i on crutches from a recent surgor' ()I1 ol/e of her legs and said she h',d been home from the hospit:d only five days when the s} ide occurred. Pope said she doesn't know what sh,'s going to do about hnising but will stay with her fri(md until her husband returns. ()no lhinv seems certain: The (Please turn to page 3.) /,/ i:il Thursday, February 18, 1999 113th Year - Number 7 3 Sections - 32 Pages 50 Cents Fired police officer to face gun charge A former Shelton Police De- partment officer was in Mason County Superior Court last week facing a charge of his own. Humberto DelaCruz, 31, of 320 21st Avenue SW, Olympia, was identified before Judge James Sawyer with being an alien in possession of a firearm. The guns in question were carried in the line of duty during his tenure as a police officer. Deputy Prosecutor Reinhold Schuetz filed the charge after the Shelton Police Department noti- fied the prosecutor's office that DelaCruz allegedly failed to let the department know he wasn't a U.S. citizen when he was hired as a reserve officer. THE POLICE department later hired DelaCruz as a regular officer. He is appealing his dis- missal last December to the city civil service commission Shelton Police Lieutenant Ken Dobie de- clined comment on the matter. In court last Friday with the defendant, retained attorney John Sinclair entered a motion to dismiss the case based on the sta- tute of limitations and waived his client's arraignment until the res- olution of his motion. He contend- ed that the time for filing on the charge had expired. Deputy Prosecutor Schuetz cit- ed a tenure statute, maintaining that the offense was ongoing for the duration of the time that DelaCruz served as an officer and carried a firearm. Information in the file was pro- vided by agent Adam Levine of the Immigration and Naturaliza- tion division of the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice. That information alleges that DelaCruz was born in Mexico and was granted tempo- rary residence in the U.S. on 1)e- cember 4, 1989. He became a law- ful resident, but not a citizen, on March 29, 1991, according to documents in the case. HE GO'][' A job as a reserve of- ricer with the Shelton Police I)e- partment on May 2, 1992 after tip ing an application that falsely claimed U.S. citizenship, accord- ing to court papers. In September of 1994 the Shelton Police l)e- partment gave him a Glock handgun to be carried on duty, according to court papers. Two months later he applied for U.S. citizenship and stated in official papers that he was a Mexican cit- izen. He was hired as a police officer in 1995. Soon after being sworn in he wrote a memorandum to Dobie indicating that his off-duty fire- arm would be a .45 caliber Springfield handgun, according to court papers. He was naturalized and admitted to the U.S. as a citi- zen on January 31, 1996. A check of records determined that he never applied for an alien firearms license for either the Glock or the Springfield, accord- ing to court papers. Sinclair claims in a motion tbr dismissal that the clock started running on the three-year statute of limitations the day after Dela• Cruz was made a U.S. citizen. By Sinclair's logic, January 31 of this year was the last date to t'ile charges in this case. Charges were filed on February 9 of this year, SINCLAIR SAID that he would also move for a change of venue, indicating that in the course of his client:'s employment with the police department Dela- Cruz had worked witt the prose- cutor's oMce and testified before both Mason County Superior "I believe that establishesa 'f mmtlict of interest," he explained. The motions are scheduled for arglimelt; before the court on March 25• I)ela(;ruz is claiming he is a victim ot' discrimination, Sinclair said. In addition, Sinclair said the City of Shelten is an accomplice to the we'q)ons charge filed against his client. "Technically that's true," Sin- clair said. "They handed him a gull." 1)elaCruz currently works as a stor, security officer, Sinclair said. DON DANIEl,, an Olympia attorney representing the Shelt0n Police Department, said DelaCru was t'ired after failing to respond to cotrtJssued subpoenas and for failing to return to court for a sec- ond day of testimony aler he was ordered to do so by a judge. Dela- Cruz misrepresented the reasons why he didn't return to court, l)aniel said. As tbr DelaCruz's claim he was discriminated against, Daniel c(mlmented, "Our investigation of that matter has turned up no evi- dence to support those allega- tions. I can assure you there has been no discri ruination or any dis- criminatory conduct toward him as he alleges." The' civil service commission hearing on l)eJaCruz's appeal of his termination is sch(:'duled for March 2 and 3, Daniel said. Woman admits giving man fatal heroin shot With a pool of potential jurors waiting in the hall, Mason Coun- ty's first case of homicide by con- trolled substance was resolved with a change of plea in superior court last Thursday. Vivianne Sue Briley, 46, of 120 West Birch Street, Shelton, en- tered the change of plea with the aid of attorney Ron Sergi in a plea-bargain agreement with the state. Deputy Prosecutor Rein- hold Schuetz orally amended the charges against her to conspiracy to commit controlled-substance homicide. Schuetz said the amended charge, an unranked offense in terms of the state's standard sen- tencing guidelines, was justit'ied in that an individual who deliv ered the drug that Briley injected for the victim was also a particip- ant in the death of Mark Ewing. Ewing died of a heroin overdose in early November of' 1998 at Bri- ley's residence Briley told Mason County Su- perior Court Judge James Sawyer in her plea that she injected Ew- ing, at his direction, with the drug late on November 1 and that he was found dead the next morn- ing. Schuetz told the court that Bri- Icy, who said at Thursday's pro- ceedings that she has a bachelor's degree in business administra- tion, was also using drugs at the tram She has provided clean uri- nalysis-test results to the court sin(: bd'ore Christmas, and Ju(l,., Sawyer commended the (:hanq.{e. lie also acknowledged the validity of Schuetz's request that Brih,y be warned that she faces stone tough times staying drug- free in the days to come. She faces prison, having bargained tbr a stipulated 20-1nonth sentence, and she's due for sentencing three (lays after her 47th birthday. Judge Sawyer ordered the preparation of a presentence in, vestigation when he set Brilefa sentencing tbr March 25,